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Tire choices for the C3

Koop

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Messages
545
Location
Kalifornia
Corvette
YELLOW 69 modified GM Crate ZZ383, LS2 TBSS
Seriously? 3 choices?

BF Goodrich Radial TA
Hooooooosier
Pirelli P600

This is what I can get in 235/60/15? Unless I look at the 245/60/15 then it's the BF Goodrich all by itself.

How old am I anyway?
 
The three tires you list are all good tires, and will probably give you good service. I would say buy the one you can get the best price on.

However. I hate to say this as it dates me, but I have been using the BFG TA radial on all my cars for more than 40 years. Have only had a problem with one tire, which BFG took care of promptly. I usually got around 40,000 to 50,000 miles use out of a daily driver. I am a BFG tire fan boy.

I have always considered a P235-60 on a stock 7" or 8" wheel to be the largest tire that could be stuffed under a 68-69 body. But the 69 I currently own has a set of custom wheels with P255-60 TA's . The wheels are the Torq Thrust D's, I'm not sure what the back spacing is but they fit and clear the calipers without using spacers

As a caution, use of a 50 series tire on a stock wheel will usually have clearance problems with the trailing arms in the rear.
 
I wish someone would mass produce the aluminum 80-82 wheels in a 17" size.

Why not- they make snowflakes and honeycomb wheels for Pontiacs. :chuckle
 
I wish on the 17" reproductions!

I did find a couple of other brands of tires but the reviews aren't so good. So the TA Radial will be it since I can't see vaporizing the P600 at $1,100 for a set. I think the current Pilot's only lasted about 12,000 miles over the past 15 years.

It's tempting to get some American Racing 17" wheels but I like the stock appearance of the car.
 
It's tempting to get some American Racing 17" wheels but I like the stock appearance of the car.

This is how I feel. I don't like the low profile tire/big wheel look on older Vettes.
 
The downside of a performance tire is short tread life. The Pilots must be pretty soft to only last 12,000 miles.

The TA Radial was really the first street performance tire available. John Greenwood used shaved TA's in Trans Am racing back in the early '70's to take to the winner's circle. Due to the success of the TA, by the late 70's, we had the Firestone Wingfoots, and the Goodyear Eagle, & Eagle II's. Hoosier set the Corvette autocross world on it's ear when they introduced the first DOT legal gumball (the AVS?). That led us to the BFG R1's & R1S's, which I don't know if they are still available, and the Goodyear Gatorbacks. The performance tire market has moved on to 17" and larger wheels, which leaves the 15" market behind.

In our local Corvette club, the C4 & C5 guys seem to like the Hankook tires. I'm just glad that the TA Radial is still available.
 
I went with the T/A radials last year. Of the options still available these seemed the best choice. So far I like them. We had Eagle STs on it for many years before. They were a good tire but long out of production.

Tom
 
This is how I feel. I don't like the low profile tire/big wheel look on older Vettes.


But it sure would make the old barge handle better! And room for bigger brakes too.

Tough choice, but the tires on the factory 15" alloys won again.
 
The downside of a performance tire is short tread life. The Pilots must be pretty soft to only last 12,000 miles.

The TA Radial was really the first street performance tire available. John Greenwood used shaved TA's in Trans Am racing back in the early '70's to take to the winner's circle. Due to the success of the TA, by the late 70's, we had the Firestone Wingfoots, and the Goodyear Eagle, & Eagle II's. Hoosier set the Corvette autocross world on it's ear when they introduced the first DOT legal gumball (the AVS?). That led us to the BFG R1's & R1S's, which I don't know if they are still available, and the Goodyear Gatorbacks. The performance tire market has moved on to 17" and larger wheels, which leaves the 15" market behind.

In our local Corvette club, the C4 & C5 guys seem to like the Hankook tires. I'm just glad that the TA Radial is still available.

The first thing I did to the car about 1980 was trash my Dad's Bias Ply tires in favor of Eagle GT's, a set of GM factory aluminum wheels (take off rims from a '73 Vette) and a set of KYB's. WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!

The Hankook Ventus V12 is a great tire, I've had couple of sets on my CTS-V and a couple sets on my SRT8 so I cannot say enough good about them. The rest of he Hankook line up is pretty much junk.

The Pilots were a very good set of tires, the fronts still have lots of tread on them but at 15 years old they're petrified. Much of the tread on the back tires has long since left the vehicle in numerous clouds of smoke, they are so rock hard that the car is spinning the tires on a hard 3-2 downshift on the Freeway. Kinda scary if you have a heavy foot. I'm hoping the Radial TA's are as sticky as the Pilots were at the beginning.
 
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However. I hate to say this as it dates me, but I have been using the BFG TA radial on all my cars for more than 40 years.

I don't want to date myself either. That being said I had a driver's license 13 years before the BFG TA was introduced. :chuckle

Hmm, Schenuit tires were pretty sticky in the 70s. ;)

In our local Corvette club, the C4 & C5 guys seem to like the Hankook tires. I'm just glad that the TA Radial is still available.

I'm running Hankook tires and I agree with them.
 

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